The baby boy of Ramakrushna Nayak was sleeping inside a mosquito net on the courtyard of his home on Saturday morning when the monkey crept up and fled with the newborn.

The baby’s father, Ramakrushna Nayak lies prostrate before God, praying for safety of his child in Talabasta village of Odisha’s Cuttack district.(Source: Sambad)

The body of a 17-day-old baby, who was stolen by a monkey on Saturday, was found in a well near his home in Odisha’s Talabasta village on Sunday.

The baby boy of Ramakrushna Nayak was sleeping inside a mosquito net on the courtyard of his home on Saturday morning when the monkey crept up and fled with the newborn.

His mother, who woke seeing the monkey flee with the baby, could not do anything.

A massive search involving police, fire and forest officials yielded no result on Saturday.

The baby’s body was found in the well near the Nayak’s home on Sunday morning.

“Most probably, the monkey had dropped off the baby in the well soon after it took off,” said Biswaranjan Sahoo, inspector of Banki police station, adding that this was the first time he had come across such a case in his career.

“The body has now been sent to a local hospital for post-mortem,” Sahoo said.

The baby’s parents were inconsolable on being told that their son was no more. The father, Ramakrushna Nayak was lying prostrate before a local goddess from Saturday, praying for safety of his child.

The baby, the firstborn of the Nayak couple, was not crying since his birth. He was admitted to a paediatrics hospital and had come home just three days ago.

Fire brigade personnel and local forest officials who spent the entire day yesterday searching for the child said they are not yet sure if it was Grey Langur or Rhesus Macaque.

“We had a 30-member team of forest officials looking out for the monkey and the baby. But what made it difficult for us the lack of crying by the kid. Locating him was always going to be a difficult task,” said Sangram Keshari Mohanty, a forest ranger.

Earlier, a few women were also injured in monkey attacks in the area in the past couple of weeks.

A few weeks ago, people in Athagarh block of Cuttack had blocked a road protesting attack by monkeys which had created nuisance in the village. The forest department then fired in the air and injected drugs inside the bananas hanging from trees to keep monkeys away from people’s homes.

In March last year, people in a village of coastal Kendrapara district had to close down schools and an Anganwadi centre following monkey attacks.

The same month, a government employee in the district died after he injured his head when a monkey leapt at him from a roadside tree.